Life is an Invitation

Life is an invitation. I don’t always feel that way. Sometimes it feels like life is a bat, but when I look at this photo the hubs took, I feel wonder and anticipation. I like feeling that.

I grew up with mountains on the horizon. I used to like to look up and see them. In the summer, when it got too hot down in town, my parents would load us into my dad’s pickup and we’d head up, seeking cooler climes and a higher view. I still love the semi-scary thrill of driving up and up and up. I was not so wild about the restroom facilities, but a few outhouses are worth the view and the cool.

We’d clamber up and down things, fall in the stream (can still remember how cold it was!) and get incredibly dirty. Probably picked up a tick or two from clambering up and down things. When the sun rode low, they’d pile us back in the truck and we’d head down.

We’d get there to find it hotter than when we left it, but the change of perspective had helped. It for sure helped our parents. We might have been tired and a bit cranky, but after getting scrubbed and tick-checked, we went to bed without too much fuss and slept like the dead.

Now that I live pretty much at sea level (I think our house is about 60 ft?), I sometimes forget to look up. Looking up isn’t just about going up, about getting above. It’s about looking past present troubles and concerns. It’s remembering that sometimes all we need is a different perspective, or a mental break from that intense focus on the here and now. We change our view a little, just by lifting our chin a very little.

It never hurts to remember that life is not a fixed point, even if we sometimes become fixated. Not a lot will change in a minute, but our spirits are eased and perhaps—in that moment—we can realize that one year from now, or two years or twenty, this moment will look very different. We might even wonder why we didn’t enjoy it more and fuss less.

Life is an invitation to live. There are no promises other than the hope of being a bit wiser at the end of it.

Do you ever forget to look up and just be? Miss the moment because you’re wishing it away? Looked back and wondered what all your fuss was about?

You know I love those comments and they get entered into my monthly drawing for an AnaBanana gift basket ($25 value). A winner will be announced in the first blog post of the new month. 🙂